Hollywood actor linked to overdose deaths of 2 women gets probation

Widower of murdered model speaks out

Jan Cilliers' wife Christy Giles, and her friend Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola died after being drugged and dumped at LA hospitals. Cilliers is speaking out after David Pearce was convicted of their murders.

LOS ANGELES - Actor Brandt Osborn, charged in connection with the fentanyl overdose deaths of two women who were left at Los Angeles hospitals in 2021, pleaded no contest to accessory after the fact and was immediately sentenced to probation and community service.

The Accessory Case 

What we know:

Brandt Osborn, 46, entered a plea of no contest to two counts of accessory after the fact. 

This plea comes after a jury was hopelessly deadlocked on the same charges earlier, leading to a mistrial declaration by Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Eleanor J. Hunter.

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Osborn's immediate sentence includes two years of formal probation and 480 hours of community service.

The prosecution alleged that Osborn accompanied the primary defendant, David Pearce, in a Toyota Prius with no license plates to separate hospitals where the two victims, Christy Giles, 24, and Hilda Marcela Cabrales-Arzola, 26, were abandoned. 

Primary Defendant's Verdict

Dig deeper:

Pearce, 43, a Hollywood producer, was convicted in February and sentenced to 146 years to life in state prison.

Pearce was found guilty of two counts of first-degree murder stemming from the deaths of Giles and Cabrales-Arzola.

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In addition to the murder charges, the jury found Pearce guilty of multiple sexual assault charges involving seven other women between 2007 and 2020. 

These charges included three counts of forcible rape; two counts of sexual penetration by use of force; one count each of rape of an unconscious person and sodomy by use of force.

The backstory:

Giles and Cabrales-Arzola were taken to separate hospitals on November 13, 2021, about two hours apart.

Giles was already deceased upon arrival at Southern California Hospital, while Cabrales-Arzola was in critical condition at Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Hospital and was taken off life support later that month. 

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The deaths were classified as homicides, and toxicology reports found multiple drugs present in both victims' systems.

Trial Details and Allegations

Big picture view:

Deputy District Attorney Catherine Mariano asserted that Pearce was a "sexual predator" who met the two women at an after-hours rave in downtown Los Angeles.

The prosecutor argued that Pearce gave Giles and Cabrales-Arzola fentanyl and GHB (known as a "date rape" drug) "because he wanted to sexually assault them," highlighting the discovery of Pearce's DNA on the victims. 

The prosecution noted that Pearce and Osborn waited hours before transporting the victims from their shared apartment in the Pico-Robertson district to the hospitals.

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Pearce's trial attorney, Jeff Voll, commented after the verdict that it was "truthfully not surprising given the overwhelming amount of incriminating evidence," but he had expected the jury to deadlock on the murder counts, arguing the women died because they "all got sick off of fentanyl."